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Britain establishes 'frozen ark' to protect endangered species

AM - Wednesday, 28 July , 2004 08:26:15

Reporter: Kirsten Aiken

TONY EASTLEY: In Britain, a veritable Noah's Ark is being established to preserve the genetic blueprints of thousands of endangered animals.

While the unprecedented DNA collection might one day lead to the resurrection of these extinct animals, the immediate aim is to conserve species under threat from climate change and habitat loss.

London Reporter Kirsten Aiken.

KIRSTEN AIKEN: Earth's sixth mass extinction is how some scientists have labelled the current threat to biodiversity. Increasing global temperatures and decreasing habitats are contributing to the decline in population of thousands of animals.

As a result, British scientists have established what they're calling the frozen ark – an unprecedented animal tissue bank to preserve endangered species DNA.

The Keeper of Zoology at Britain's Natural History Museum, Professor Phil Rainbow, admits desperate times call for desperate measures.

PHIL RAINBOW: If we lose a lot of the animals that are endangered, that somebody somewhere has popped some of them into a freezer, so that we've got a record and a preserved sample of their DNA – and that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to make sure that we've got those samples in the freezer. So in case somebody in 50 years time turns around and says, 'why oh why didn't they freeze that material, because we can do so much with it now'. We want to show that foresight and we want to make sure that we get samples of endangered animals in the freezer.

KIRSTEN AIKEN: Researchers at Monash University in Melbourne will house duplicates of the DNA to protect against damage or loss.

PAUL PIERCE KELLY: If you lose certain genetic lines from animals now, you can possibly at least know how to merge and manage those populations better, because of the knowledge we'll have within in the banks. So that's much more the practical application of this rather than bringing lost species back.

The idea is that we've made ourselves less likely to lose those species in the first place.

KIRSTEN AIKEN: Resurrecting extinct species might not be the immediate objective of the DNA bank, but Professor Rainbow isn't ruling a Jurassic Park-style experiment out in the future.

PHIL RAINBOW: We can't do it at the moment. We haven't the technology. Perhaps one day we'll be able to. It might be possible – who knows? We've made such huge technological advances in the last 30 years. Perhaps in 40, 50 years time, we might be able to that. In which case we will then face a choice. But we have the material in the freezer, at least we've still got that choice, and people can then discuss the ethics and whether it should be done.